Thomas R. Rondinella Movies
Daryl Goldberg's Unholy stars Adrienne Barbeau and Nicholas Brendon as a mother and son who must save their family from a complicated conspiracy involving elements as disparate as a witch, the United States government, and Nazi occultists. The script, by Samuel Stephen Freeman, is based loosely on actual events described in Nazi papers seized by the Allied forces. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrienne Barbeau, Nicholas Brendon, (more)
Director William R. Pace debuts with the chilling account of a mild-mannered midwesterner who went horribly wrong. The film opens with a lone sniper atop a water tower firing at terrified passers-by. As he commits mass murder, the film flashes back to the events that led up to this drastic act. Billy led a quiet life of desperation, starting with demeaning part-time jobs, a pushy wife, and his bullying father. A sense of doom and tragedy hovers over Billy like a black cloud until one day the weight proves to be too great and he starts his rampage. Charming Billy debuted at the L.A./AFI Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Hayden, Sally Murphy, (more)
- 1990
Despite the title, this is a mild comedy which only alludes to sexual activity; it never displays it. In the story, three pairs of college students get together to film and update a 1937 etiquette book entitled A Girl's Guide To Sex in order to win a competition put on by the National Education and Resource Dept. (NERD). A prudish campus bigshot hears about the project and, assuming the worst (given the project's title), lays plans to thwart the students. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1989
This clunky horror parody opens with a series of lawnmower mutilation murders at the Tall Grass Country Club, days before the opening of a televised Pro-Am tournament. Fearing bad publicity, the club owner enlists the aid of alcoholic pro Roy Kent (Robert North) -- a has-been who can't seem to live down a flub that caused his career to take a nose-dive years ago -- to undertake a very low-key investigation. Roy's chief rival, young Kelly Lange (Victoria Scott), insists they close the club pending capture of the killer. When the murders are pinned on the gruff Deke Slade (Jeremy Whelan), it seems the case is closed... but the real killer is still lurking about. This Troma flavored spoof plays like a scene-for-scene parody of Jaws, especially during the climax when our three "heroes" wage a battle of wills with -- big surprise here -- a demonic lawnmower. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Religion, Inc. was originally -- and very briefly -- released as A Fool and His Money. While watching TV, ex-adman Morris Codman (Jonathan Penner) receives a message from God. Advised by the Almighty to go into business for himself, Codman inaugurates his own religion, founded on a philosophy of selfishness. Two distinguished men of letters appear in Religion Inc -- George Plimpton (as God!) and Jerzy Kosinski -- but that's not why this loser is currently available on video shelves. It seems that a pre-Speed Sandra Bullock shows up fleetingly as a long-suffering public defender. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Penner, Gerald Orange, (more)
- 1989
Veteran comic actor George Segal plays a wealthy industrialist whose real passion in life is paint-gun war games. In fact, he's so addicted to these quasi-military games that he insists on being addressed as "Colonel." The way to promotion in his company is through these games, rather than through doing a good job. Hard working Ann (Jennifer Edwards) is tired of seeing less competent males promoted because of their war game skills. She joins forces with the Colonel's wife Florence (Sally Kellerman), with whom he's in the midst of a divorce, and the other company wives to form their own war games team. They hire a mercenary (Lou Ferrigno) to train them, leading to a climactic showdown with the men. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Segal, Sally Kellerman, (more)
- 1988
Severance is a human interest story about a drunken drifter's attempts to reconcile with his long estranged daughter. Former Air Force officer Ray Ponti (Lou Liotta) fell apart and lost everything after the auto accident that kills his wife. As the film opens, he hasn't seen his daughter in years. She was a child at the time of the accident, and is now working as a go-go dancer, although Ray tells people she's away in college. In a moment of quirky idealism, Ray offends the members of a drug ring, and is forced to flee town in a car borrowed from a girl friend. He decides to go see daughter Cly (Lisa Nicole-Wolpe in the old family home, which she has just bought back. Their attempts at reconciliation form the focus of the story. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lou Liotta, Lisa Wolpe, (more)
Girls School Screamers is a sleazy, obnoxious, and derivative slasher offering from those purveyors of "Z-movie" schlock at Troma (namely executive producers Lloyd Kauffman and Michael Herz). The story plays the basic Old Dark House riff, involving six curvaceous coeds who plan to spend a weekend taking inventory at a lavish remote mansion left to their school by a deceased millionaire. By the end of the first night, the girls are hunted down and slaughtered by an unseen interloper lurking within the house. That's the premise for what amounts to 80 minutes of naked flesh and hardcore splatter before the killer's identity is revealed in the contrived "surprise" climax, by which time viewers will likely have tuned out. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mollie O'Mara, Sharon Christopher, (more)
